Champlin man arrested after offering to pay for sex with teenage girl

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office has arrested a 52-year-old man from Champlin after he texted a teenage girl and offered to pay her for sex. Today, Mark Jerome Anderson was formally charged with prostitution of a known juvenile, a felony.

The Sheriff’s Office and Dayton Police began investigating the case when authorities learned that a man had been “sexting” with the victim. Anderson had met the victim in an online chatroom and then they began exchanging text messages.

During texting, Anderson and the victim discussed their ages and details of where to meet each other in person. Anderson offered to pick up the victim from school and pay for sex. When he arrived at the school, he sent a text message to the victim to alert her that he had arrived for their pre-arranged meeting – but the victim did not see the message because her phone had been taken from her earlier by a school official.